FROM AN ARTICLE BY JASON DEL REYAT
ALL THINGS DDEC. 2013
AND OTHER SOURCES
How Does Amazon “Git ‘Er Done”?
Humongous Online Retailer
80 huge regional warehouses
“fulfillment centers”
Each close to shipping hub
Fulfillment Center
One of Four in Phoeniz
Fulfillment Center
Loading docks from 1 to infinity
Work Hard, Have Fun
Make History
Work Hard, Have Fun
Get metal detected
1.2 million sq. feet
Of American industrial process power…And software
Chutes, Conveyers
Amazon started as books
More Books, CDs, etc.
More Books
They Have “Everything”
More Everything
More Everything
More Etc.
How to Organize “Everything”
They have “everything”
How does one organize and keep track of everything?
A first class COMP 523 project
Inside those Loading Docks
Every box incoming scanned into software system, virtual record for every item
Items “filed” onto shelves wherever workers find space.
Shelf barcode is scanned and item location saved in system
Chaotic Storage
Chaotic Storage
Like hashing into buckets, a little
But no hash, just buckets
Volleyball in with 2 packs of gum balls
No there is no rhyme or reason
Chaotic Storage
Now what?
Items in the order generate retrieval instructions
“Pickers” dispatched to go gather items from the chaos
Customer clicks “checkout”
Might walk 10-15 miles a day
Scanner sends to the exact shelf location for the item
Directed by various orders being compiled by pickers all over
Optimized path is computed bin to bin, aisle to aisle
Pickers
Garbage Collection
Items found off shelf go in bins for re-entry later
Order Build
Picker carts end up here
Each slot is a customer order
Software sends builder to items in carts, to slots
Order Packing
Built orders go to packing
Software tells packer what box, envelope size to use
Order Weighing
They call it the “slam” line
because…
Order Addressing
Mailing labels “slammed” onto the packages after weighing
Address labels guide conveyors
Orange sliders push package down the right chute to shipping bundles for various shippers, destinations
Chutes and Conveyors
Watch it in Action
A Day In the Life of Amazon
Travel with an item point to point
Fun Facts to Know and Tell
Work Campers
Now… Kiva Acquisition
A Kiva Managed Warehouse
Discovery channel on Kiva
BettyBot at Quiet Logistics
Quiet Logistics II